Disavowed: White Nationalist and ex-Green Beret part of Charlottesville violence

Charlottesville, Virginia — A new low in American discourse was seen this weekend as a rally under the moniker “Unite the Right” which called upon white nationalists, the Ku Klux Klan, along with neo-Nazi’s to protest the removal of a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee erupted into violence in the streets of Charlottesville. The rolling street fight resulted in scores of injuries as white nationalists tangled with elements of another fringe group, the far left anarcho-communist group known as Antifa along with other counter-protestors.

The violence culminated with a known white supremacist, James Fields Jr. driving his car at a high rate of speed into unsuspecting counter-protestors sending bodies of men, women, and children into the air and pinning some between another car stopped in the intersection. The attack has been called an act of terrorism by Attorney General Jeff Sessions as it injured upwards of 20 pedestrians and killed a young 32-year-old paralegal named Heather Heyer.

Photo: YouTube

Scores of video and pictures of that day depict many black clad and bandana’d members of Antifa and equally enraged counter-protestors taunting the various Nazi’s and white nationalists along the Unite the Right procession. Yet, one of the most predominant in all of the videos, to include the violent ones, was the heavily armored group known as the League of the South (LOS). Members of the LOS were almost impossible to miss with their white shields with black crosses painted upon them.

However, there seemed to be one man who stood out amongst this crowd almost as if he was their leader with his long gray hair and goatee framed by his black sunglasses. That man goes by the name of Michael R. Tubbs, the chairman of the Northeast Florida chapter of the League of the South, and he is a former Green Beret.

The League of the South’s core values are as such: “We seek to advance the cultural, social, economic, and political well-being and independence of the Southern people by all honorable means.” That is something Tubbs echoed in a statement to SOFREP saying, “we are weak because of diversity. Contrary to the Murkian lie, diversity is not our strength.”

Photo: Facebook

Tubbs radical approach to the white nationalist views and the advancement of their southern culture has seemed to have made him a spokesperson of sorts for the LOS, yet the question remains, how did a Green Beret demolitions expert (18C) from 5th Special Forces Group end up amid, and in fact, participating in the Charlottesville riot.

It all started with two soldiers tied to a tree in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In January 1987 two soldiers stationed at Ft. Bragg were on field maneuvers within the military base when they were approached by two masked men dressed in all black and brandishing weapons. The two men pointed their guns at the two soldiers and demanded they relinquish their M-16 assault rifles. The two service members complied and then were subsequently tied to a North Carolina pine tree. The masked men told the soldiers that they were stealing the weapons for the Ku Klux Klan and that it, “was the only way that the organization could survive.”

The robbery went unsolved until late 1990 at the beginning of Desert Storm when working on a tip Jacksonville police raided the home of a one John Tubbs and discovered a massive cache of weaponry ranging from M-16’s, thousands of rounds of military issue ammunition, an anti-aircraft machine gun, anti-personnel land mines, numerous handguns and shotguns, a 40-millimeter grenade launcher, hand grenades, smoke grenades, tear gas, dynamite, blasting caps, booby traps, and up to 90 pounds of high explosives. The majority of the weapons cache was serial numbered to the U.S. Army by way of Fort Bragg and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the home of 5th Special Forces Group. 5th Special Forces Group moved from Fort Bragg to Fort Campbell in June of 1988.

Also inside the home was white supremacist propaganda, military issued field manuals on guerrilla warfare, and improvised bomb-making materials along with a “target list” of various newspapers and stores suspected of being owned by Jews or minorities. And you guessed it, John is Michael Tubbs brother.

Along with Tubbs’ brother getting arrested for a massive cache of weaponry, another soldier was arrested in Charleston, South Carolina, Warrant Officer Jeffrey Jennett. The Warrant Officer instantly copped to assisting in the collection of the weapons cache in Jacksonville along with confessing to being a part of the armed robbery at Fort Bragg in 1987. Jennett’s then wife gave up Tubbs as his accomplice who was still on active duty and deployed to Saudi Arabia as apart of Desert Shield.

Tubbs was brought home to Fort Campbell, arrested, and charged with theft of government property and conspiracy to transport guns and explosives across state lines. Tubbs pleaded guilty to and spent five years in jail.

Tubbs got out in 1995 and went straight back to his white nationalist roots and joined various neo-Confederate movements before settling in with the League of the South. SOFREP reached out to the Florida chapter of the LOS to see if Tubbs would be willing to answer a few questions and LOS initially came back with the following statement:

“Thank you for your interest but with all due respect Michael Tubbs is not interested in being interviewed. Let it be said that he’s using his acquired skills and knowledge to apply the motto, De Oppresso Liber to his own people.”

De Oppresso Liber is the motto of the Green Berets which means “to free the oppressed” and is the ethos that many past and present Special Forces soldiers live their lives by. As a former Green Beret, I was stunned to be reading this in a statement from a white nationalist movement. Then some time later the person behind the LOS messenger sent another statement, they wanted to talk.

“Yeah, maybe if you sent a list of questions so we could see where you’re heading with this. The media is owned by the Left and not to be trusted. Not sure where y’all stand.”

I began to wonder, was I talking to Tubbs? I asked if Tubbs had ever served in the Green Berets with 5th Special Forces group which the reply was yes and that Tubbs had trained at the old Mott Lake schoolhouse in the early 80’s. Mott Lake is where the now defunct Special Operations Training (SOT) course was held, which is the predecessor to today’s Special Forces direct action course, SFARTAETC.

When asked whether or not the Florida chapter of LOS and Tubbs himself were invited by the Unite the Right to the rally and what the LOS had intended at the rally the spokesperson, or Tubbs himself, had this to say:

Neither Tubbs nor the Florida League were invited by name. The League of the South was invited and the Florida League was but one contingent. The intent was to go to the park and listen to several nationalist speakers. We were told that Antifa and other Leftist vermin were going to protest the event with violence. The right of self defense can never be denied.”

When asked why they seemed to have shown up to do battle with helmets, padding, and their white with black cross shields and if there was a known threat from Antifa the LOS spokesmen replied:

Many people were armed with defense tools because women, elderly and the infirm were coming to listen to the speakers. Many of our people were beaten badly with several having to go to the hospital for head injuries. We had rocks, bricks, bottles, cans, urine and some unidentified caustic substance thrown at us. League medics treated several for Pepper Spray and tear gas as well as open head wounds.”

When asked if Florida LOS along with its member and former United States Marine Corps veteran James O’Brien instigated an attack on a African-American counter-protestor, the LOS spokesperson sent along this video and said that, “several angry Blacks were stalking a group of us that got separated from the main body. Our group was walking back to the Market Street parking garage. When a few of us turned into the opening of the garage, separating themselves from the main body several Blacks jumped one guy.”

The LOS claims this was all in self-defense.

However in this video from Twitter you can see Tubbs standing in front of a counter-protest group like some Field Marshall and exclaiming “Follow Me!” then shoving his way along with his followers down to the street where a few scuffles with the LOS and Antifa members broke out. This incident was prior to the parking garage melee.

Other footage shows Tubbs and his LOS members well before they claim they were assaulted by counter-protestors and Antifa at the parking garage where you can see an LOS member strike a female counter-protestor.

There is no need to start any sort of finger-pointing here. Both sides are at fault in this. Civil discourse has been infected with the likes of the anarcho-communist thugs of Antifa as well as the white nationalist Nazi extremists. The constitutional rights of all are being trampled by a fringe few. Charlottesville should have never happened, and the total lack of police presence or even what looked like a plan to quell any sort of violence is becoming sadly apparent. How does law enforcement protect and serve when both sides of this coin want to do them harm?

And now the genie is out of the bottle, blood has been spilled, a life taken and now both sides will use this as a battle cry for vengeance. What these racists and anarchists have done is dim the torch that Lady Liberty holds over our great nation and tarnished the blanket of freedom that many have died to protect. The fear that we as a nation are no better than the rest of the world is becoming a morbid reality.

About the Author

Derek Gannon
A freelance journalist based on the West Coast. Green Beret veteran of the Global War on Terror. He researches and reports on African, and Horn of Africa Terror Networks & News. Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Member, Humanist, and Former Armed Anthropologist that longs for what was, the American Dream. Veteran of 82nd, 173rd, RTB, & "The Legion" 5th Special Forces Group (A/1/5 CIF). Twitter: @derekgannoncm6.

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Daniel B

To me talking your children to these protests is no different than having a convicted child molester babysit your children. Just saying.

Joy B

A friend of mine is a psychologist who works for DCFS and I hear constantly about how difficult it is for him and the Social Workers and justice system. The thing is, our definition of freedom, makes it difficult to censure or prosecute stupidity, especially when it comes to children and is part of a belief system (you heard about the FGM cases in MI, right) There's also a slippery slope argument where your opinion of dangerous, might vary greatly from someone else's. I agree that's is reckless to bring kids to a protest or any event where there is a reasonable expectation of people acting out and getting violent. At the same time, if"we" start telling parents how to parent, there's an inherent danger of losing parental rights to whatever issue is trending at the time.

Daniel B

If you put your child in a dangerous place or situation it's your fault! If they get hurt in some way it's your fault! You're the adult. The law is put in place because their parents have no common sense.